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Monday, 9 December 2013

This blog post is way over due so there is lots to share. Bear with me this is gonna be a very photo heavy post.

My first news is to welcome to the world Cals latest litter.

This bundle of cuteness were born on the 26th of November and are now nearly two weeks old. This is Cals third litter and will be her last but it is wonderful to see her with kittens again. She is such a happy mum.

We have two boys and two girls. They have good markings and are going to be wonderful cats. They are already starting to show their own personalities. I'm going to have great fun with them over the next few months before they find their new family's.

This little man is the main character of the group. He's the biggest and loudest, he doesn't like to be picked up yet and tells you as much if you try but hes a little chubby angel when hes asleep.

This picture was taken just as this little girl was the first to open her eyes :)

Next up and a personal best my patterns are in 3 magazines this month.

Love crochet came as a bit of a surprise. I was in Asda when i noticed the new issue was out. I picked it up cause I can't resist looking at any crochet mag and to my surprise saw bubble bunny on the cover.

Its a wonderful to see bubblebunny in print again. Love crochet have laid the pattern out very well and there are lots of tips, photos and information that make it really easy to follow.

In inside crochet it was time for my favourite squirrel to have his moment of stardom

This pattern hasn't been released anywhere else so this is an exclusive for Inside crochet so grab a copy while you can. Fans of my hedgehog pattern need to get their hands on this pattern as this squirrel uses the same overworking stitch to give him a wonderfully bushy tail.

Last and by no means least Craftseller.
Every month my editors at Craftseller set me a new crochet challenge and this month was a great one.
They asked for a lacework angel to go on top of a Christmas tree. This had two problems to overcome. I haven't done much lacework before and how to stiffen it so it would stand ridged.

The head and body were done in a traditional amigurumi shape. We decided to keep the face blank to keep the white angelic look. The skirt and wings are made of lacework crochet but I've kept it really simple so they are easy to make if you've never tried lacework before. They are set with sugar syrup which works well but takes a lot of time - up to three days to dry. It left it a bit touch and go to hit my deadline but the finished angel will last for years and be part of many Christmases to come.

Christmas is suddenly very soon and I'm very behind on everything. I have to say I am sorry but the Christmas patterns I planned to release in my esty shop will not be ready in time. I don't want to rush them and make mistakes so they will be released next year. It will now be a full range of patterns for Christmas 2014.

As a taster here are some pics of what I've got so far.

There is more but I'll leave it there for now as I want a cuppa and a catch up over at handmade Monday before I start work for the day (I'm making Bunny's, chicks and Easter eggs today)

Sunday, 17 November 2013

Well its been a while since I wrote a post so there is lots to ctach you up on.

First up my family of hedgehogs made a visit to Simply crochet magazine

This was last months issue so its not in the shops anymore but you can still get the pattern from my etsy shop or you should be able to pick up a back copy of the magazine if you contact them via their website.

This pattern has been really popular and I've seen lots of my hedgehogs popping up all over the Internet. Lucy over at Attic24 wrote a lovely blog post about hers. she adding it to an Autumn themed wreath which I can't wait to see.

Lucy also inspired me to write a photo tutorial as the photos in the magazine didn't really show anything help with the construction of these guys. Hopefully this will help if anyone get stuck with the new spine stitch.

This is the finished little hedgehog I made for the tutorial. She's such a little cutie. Before my mum can steal her I'm going to run a giveaway over on my facebook page to find her a new home. To enter just head over to my facebook page and post a comment on the photo of this little hedgehog :)

She is sitting on my latest project which is another version of the shawl pattern I did for craftseller magazine

This one is in Autumn colours and will be decorated with falling leaves.

The Craftseller pattern has flower and sparkle.

Craftseller wanted a sparkly shawl that would make a good Christmas present. As you all know amigurumi is my crochet home but I love all forms of crochet so it was great fun to get to do something a bit different.

This pattern is ridiculously simple to make if you know the basic crochet stitches.Its also really quick to make so if you are looking for a quick make for a last minuet present it works really well.

Along with the shawl pattern you also get flower corsage pattern that can be used as a shawl pin or just use it on its own as a corsage.

That caught me up a bit although Ive lots of new patterns that I'll be adding to my etsy shop soon so stay tuned :)

Monday, 14 October 2013

Working on Christmas things when its still summer outside can be hard. When I was making this Christmas amigurumi trio for craftseller magazine it was one of the nicest weekends we've had all summer, and I was inside sketching elf's and Santa's.

Making a pattern set for a magazine can be tricky as there is only so much page space your pattern can take up. To make 3 very different figures all with a lot of detail fit in the page space. I have had to make a basic body pattern that can be adjusted slightly for all 3. Only problem with this was that my Santa has been on a diet.

Sorry for the bad photo. These are the trio before I sent them in to the magazine and here they are in the mag...

This little elf is one of may favourite patterns to date. I think he's so cute. His messy hair and pointy ears just make me smile every time I see him.

Next months craftseller has a very different project from me but it'll still add a bit of sparkle to your Christmas.

In other news my day of the dead bracelet is available as a free pattern on Inside crochet new website
you can find the pattern here

I'm also working on a set of easy Halloween patterns. They should be in my etsy shop in the next few days :)

I have missed a few weeks so I'm going to have a good catch up over at handmade monday

Sunday, 15 September 2013

While I haven't had a lot of time for crafting this week I do have a lot to show you. This happens sometimes, I don't have time to start anything new so I get time finish off some of the works in progress that linger in my makes box. Makes it look like I've been really busy but not really.

First up is the partner to green jumper bunny. Blue jumper bear. This bear was all but made and just needed sewing together but he just didn't look right. I had made him like a true old fashioned bear with a standing out muzzle, but I wasn't happy with it. In a fit of wimsey I changed it for a felt patch muzzle. While he still looks a bit angry, I am much happier with this bear.

Next up is long limbed bunny. I had half this bunny made but she needed another arm, leg and ear. I planned that she would be a very plain bunny but sometime these guys personality takes over and this little girl did not want to be a plain Jane.

I thought she needed a ribbon round her neck so I took her to work to pick one out. Fortunately or unfortunately I work at a haberdassery and the people I work with are as crafty as me. Lucy, who I was working with today kept giving me ideas and now to improve her and this is how she turned out.

Here is Lucy and her know namesake Lucy the long limbed bunny (pattern coming soon)

Finally I had a bit of a personal challenge in my head to see how small I could get crochet to go. I wanted to make some earrings but I know the crochet ball would have to be tiny to make comfortable earring to wear.

With the help of another of my workmates Leah modelling here is the result (I'm quite chuffed with these although I don't know where I use them)

I'm very luck to work with such pretty girls who don't mind me using them as models :)

Its that time to link in with handmade Monday. I hoe you'll hope over with me and see what all the other lovely craft blogers have been up too :)

This month they wanted 4 woodland animals. Lovely right up my street. As you can see by my past blog post I was already working on hedgehogs and squirrels. I had loads of ideas, however 4 different animals with 4 different body shapes was going to make for a very long pattern.

I had a re-think and started a pinterest board to gather inspiration. I think this is the image that made my mind up for the way to go with these guys.

We love woodland creatures so much this simple stylised version by Rileyconstruction on etsy tells us straight away its a fox no fuss.

With this in mind I was able to simplify my designs so that the all 4 animals could be made from a similar body shape.

This was the design I was left with along with yarn colour choices.

The finished result. I love these photos :)
I've used little felt flower cut outs and old mother of pearl buttons to decorate each one.

The hedgehog is the first pattern to be printed with my new overworking stitch. Its a very easy stitch which creates a great effect but just in case anyone does get stuck with it I'll be adding a photo tutorial section to the blog soon.

Everyone has a different favourite with these guys. My favourite is the raccoon. Whats yours?

In other news I got a nice email from the peolpe at Love crochet magazine. They said they had included my owl doorstop pattern that I did for craftseller last year in their latest issue.

Here he is in craftseller and here the surprise I got when I found a copy of Love crochet..

Doesn't he look fab on the cover :)

I have a big crochet weekend coming up and I'm hoping to get to work on another owl I'll try and keep you posted :)

Sunday, 25 August 2013

This week I'm off Duttons and have a full week of crochet ahead of me. I'm gonna be setting up my own website and part of this is doing new photo shoots with my amigurumi so they look lovely on the website.

When I first started writing amigurumi pattern nearly 2 years ago this little teddy was the first pattern I put in my esty shop.

I still have this little bear, he sits on my bookcase but I thought I'd have a go making him again anyway. I soon found ways the pattern could be improved. I changed the feet so they had bigger pads that would support a fabric patch and changed the face, using bigger eyes and a felt muzzle patch. Other than that he's just the same.

What do you think?

This photo is taken with a the soft filter on my new camera. I like the vintage look it gives. The fabric on the ears and feet has little strawberry's on it so I used another strawberry fabric (which I maybe should have ironed... whoops) for the back drop of the shot.

I really like this camera affect that adds a boarder around the bear. It really draws you into the bear and makes the red heart pop. I think I'll be using this affect more and more.

No camera effects on these two. One with heart and one without.

Finally a photo without the heart and with the boarder. This is my favourite photo:)

In other news I was asked via my etsy shop if I would make one of my chunky money amigurumis for a lady who couldn't crochet. I am always happy yo do this so the requested monkey with an additional eye patch (I don't ask questions, you want a monkey with an eye patch you got it) was lovingly made and posted off.

Today I got this lovely message from Natasha who commissioned him

"Thank you so much for making the monkey.
Myself and my fiancé collect handmade monkeys which we have created for
important moments in our life( they then travel the world with us) the
little monkey you made was to celebrate our wedding next month( hence
the colour) and the patch was because 2 weeks ago my fiancé was rushed
into hospital with an abscess on his brain that very nearly killed him,
he pulled through but his sight was affected so he has to wear a patch
until it recovers. I gave him the monkey yesterday and he loves him-
he's now joined our 5 other monkeys and will be off on his travels with
us soon.Thank you again. Have left you feedback "

How lovely is that.
Its wonderful to think that one of my silly creations will be a treasured part of their family :)

Natasha and her hubby are going to send me some pics of the (nameless at the mo) monkey with his new friends so I share them with you all when.

Monday, 19 August 2013

These owls have been really popular. I have had some wonderful feedback and seen some lovely pictures of your makes. I will be adding a "Your makes" gallery to the blog soon so if you have made anything for any of my patterns send me a photo via amigurumi barmys facebook page and I'll add your photo to the gallery.
I have had a lot of people saying how much the like the owls but they can't crochet. Thankfully quite a few people have been inspired to learn to crochet but I know this isn't the option for everyone. I have had a bit of spare time this week so I've putting together some sets of 3 owls. These will be for sale in my etsy shop for a limited time.

These sets will include 1 big, 1 medium and 1 small owl. Each with hand embroidered felt eyes. These are sold as collectible dolls and are not toys for small children.
Set one teal, red and yellow

Set 2 pink, blue and lilac

Set 3 green, bright blue and pale blue.

I won't be making many of these sets so if you want one you need to grab them while you can.